Greetings March!

So good to have spring here! A few updates..

I’m honoured to be among some lovely poets reading poems from The Butterfly House by the dearly missed Kathryn Bevis.

The event supports some fine charities Jane Scarth House and Victoria’s Promise.

Join us to celebrate the work of one of the most brilliant poets I’ve been lucky enough to know and work with. 31st March on Zoom. Details here.

In February I was over the moon to be back at my home-away-from-home Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre of Wales to run a retreat for young Welsh writers. I absolutely love tutoring these retreats and was delighted to bring along young emerging writer Luke Worthy, who I’ve mentored for some years, as the mid-week reader. Luke also took the opportunity to do some shadow tutoring and was a complete inspiration to the young writers as I knew he would be.

And last but no least, I enjoyed co-hosting an open mic for Spread the Word Rotherham with Nik Perring, to encourage younger writers, from the Hive network and beyond, to start coming to a great Rotherham event. And best thing ever, it was at Rotherham Minster of all places! For more about Spread the Word visit here.

Extending the Metaphor in Poems

Greetings March! Just a few places left on this workshop I’m doing with the Poetry Business this Monday! Book here.
Extending the Metaphor in Poems: Come dive into the extended metaphor, and swim through its glorious rooms and corridors. Consider what the extended metaphor can allow us to access that sometimes their single siblings miss out on. A 2-hour session, warm and welcoming of all, with expert tutor Vicky Morris.

Heroines, Ears and a TPB workshop…

Just a few updates on the fly! Excited to be leading a workshop with The Poetry Business around Poetry Portals & Doors in Feb should anyone be interested details here. Come and peer into poems that open portals, doors and rabbit holes into other places, ideas and realities, and consider techniques we can use to shift and change gear in unexpected ways

I’m delighted to be holding a copy of Heroines Anthology Vol 5 (poetry about women from women worldwide) which I’m lucky enough to have a poem in. Thank you to Sarah Nicholas for including my work. It can be purchased here.

And available to watch here… Ear to the Streets: 24hrs in the life of South Yorkshire – an audio-visual love letter to the urban and rural life of South Yorkshire, featuring the words and voices of over 40 young writers from across the region’s cities, towns and villages, working with poet Vicky Morris through Hive Young Writers Network. The film was created in collaboration with digital content producer and musician Kitty Turner.

Two Way Poetry Podcast

Really enjoyed this chat and chance to poetry geek out with Chris Jones on the Two Way Poetry Podcast looking at Hannah Lowe’s brilliant Fist and a fab Georgie Woodhead poem

Six Sunday Sessions: Time to… Hibernate with Poetry

Tutor: Vicky Morris
Full details here.

The shortest days require slippers, hot chocolate, a heated blanket at your desk (or is that just us?) and very importantly – poetry.  Join prize-winning poet, teacher and editor, Vicky Morris for a block of six winter poetry workshops to generate exciting new drafts and explore key tips and tricks on all things editing. Expect a wide range of poetry inspiration and great examples of poems before and after editing.

Suitable for fledgling poets and those in full flight, these 2hr and 15-minute leisurely workshops will allow time to expand your practice in the company of a supportive group, gain feedback and enjoy discussion around a poetry fire that will keep you warm (And there was no joke about haibun-ation…. 🙂

   “Passionate and generous, Vicky creates innovative and engaging workshops which build enjoyment, skill and confidence in writing, and which – evident from numerous anthologies and award-winners – generate spectacular creative work.

   “Vicky has an unerring feel for the right line, tone and form and is a fantastic diagnostician of what is not working with a poem – and what is.” Mentee Cian Ferriter, Earth’s Black Chute (Southword Editions 2022)

Full details here.

Greetings winter darkness!

Phew! What a busy autumn it’s been with new young writers’ groups starting and lots of Hive activity for the Off the Shelf Festival of Words – including the launch of The Camellia House & Other Stories, an anthology of poetry and fiction inspired by the families, gardens and histories of Wentworth Woodhouse.

It was such a joy to edit and contextualise this wonderfully evocative collection of writing. There’s the most magnificent range of creative work that tenderly, innovatively, and sometimes humorously, brings history to life through compelling new voices.  Accompanying the work, are many absorbing contextual and historical insights, such as the importance of pineapples in 1800s England, and what life ‘below stairs’ was really like. The anthology features the micro-commissioned works of 31 emerging writers aged 16+ from the Hive network, many of whom were inspired to write several pieces. These include prize-winning writers such as Luke Worthy and Freya Bantiff, and Sheffield Poet Laureates Warda Yassin (2020-22) and Beth Davies (2024-26). There are also pieces from several established writers including Ian McMillan and Helen Mort.

“The Camellia House & Other Stories offers us a beautiful and varied collection of hymns to the past, as emerging writers celebrate and sing the history of Wentworth Woodhouse. Here you will find exotic animal interactions and religious visions, the voices of aristocrats, servants and disgruntled vegetables, the sound of giggles which carry across history. This wonderful collection creates a place in which the writers of tomorrow and the people of history can meet, through the magic of language, in the most fantastic, shared now.” Jonathan Edwards: Poet & Fiction Writer

The perfect Christmas present for the history buff or word lover!
Buy The Camellia House & Other Stories here.
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And it’s been a joy to see the Canal Works project, and resulting crowd-sourced poem by Hive poet Warda Yassin, waking from slumber to make its mark on the Sheffield to Tinsley canal.

In 2021, I was delighted to mentor and support Warda on the project, devising and delivering workshops inspired by the canal’s waterways, wildlife and histories, with members of the public and young people from the Mixing Roots Programme. The Canal Works project – a Waterlines collaboration between The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust – was aimed at celebrating the history and life of the Sheffield to Tinsley Canal route.

The project culminated in Warda creating a crowd-sourced poem using writing produced in the workshops. The poem Canal Works, inspired an installation by local Sheffield artist Grace Visions which is now displayed along a wall by the Bacon Lane Bridge entrance of the Sheffield to Tinsley Canal, with an accompanying QR code to the full poem.

You can watch short films [by Aidan Joseph] of the poem and the creation of the installation here. Read the full text of the poem here.
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Also this autumn, it was a lovely moment to bring together the readings of five of the eight Hive poets who have won the New Poets Prize over the last eight years at Off the Shelf Festival of Words. Hive New Poets winners over the years are: Safia Khan (2021), Warda Yassin (2018), Beth Davies (2022), Lauren Hollingsworth Smith (2020), Georgie Woodhead (2020), Luke Worthy (2023) Freya Bantiff (2023) Charlie Jolley (2024). I’m so very proud of them all and it’s been the biggest delight to see them develop their confidence and voice over the years.

And finally, last but certainly not least, Hive poet Beth Davies was announced Sheffield Poet Laureate (2024-26) at Off the Shelf Festival of Words by previous laureate Danae Wellington (2022-24) on Thursday 24th Oct 2024. The aim of the laureateship is to champion engagement in poetry and support its wider community reach.

Both poets follow fellow Hive poet Warda Yassin who was Sheffield’s second laureate from 2020 to 2022, succeeding Otis Mensah.

Heroines Anthology [preorder]

I’m excited to have a poem in Heroines Anthology: Volume 5 available to preorder here. Oh, to make the launch in Sidney! Thanks so much to Sarah Nicholson and co.

In Heroines: An Anthology of Poetry ‘Meet mythological women and goddesses from across the globe, dryads and selkies, muses and manasa, artists, space explorers and more’

When life gives you lemons :)

Delighted to have a poem in the gorgeous Irish poetry, fiction & art journal The Waxed Lemon. You can buy it here Thank you to Derek & Joanne at TWL. 

Hello July

July greetings to all!. Delighted to have just received my contributor’s copy of Issue 46 of Southwords. How gorgeous is this cover?(‘Domestic Madonna’ by Rita Duffy). Also, the cover of ‘100 Poems of Hope’ a new anthology from The Samaritans (proceeds to) I’m chuffed to have a poem in, available here.

A special week…

Such a special week co-tutoring with the mighty Vanessa Lampert at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre of Wales for The Writing School last week and a gorgeous group of poets, topped off by a stunning guest reading from Warda Yassin. Ann missing from photo! Kathryn Bevis, you were there too in words shared, inspiration & poetry spirit
In other news, just had a poem accepted for the brilliant The Waxed Lemon. And here’s a fun photo from the Wow Festival neurodiversity panel I did in May. I hope everyone is enjoying summer!